Abstract

Justinian's Digest was compiled from opera jam paene confusa et dissoluta (Tanta 1). That cannot mean an organised library. It was a pile of manuscripts discarded after being used to compile a composite, inscription-less work to implement the Law of Citations. That work was the multitudo auctorum of Deo Auctore 6, and the multitudo antiqua of Tanta 17. The compilers started reading entire works in three Masses, and ended with fragmented or incomplete works or mere scraps of manuscript in the Appendix.